Date: Thursday, 9 March 2017

Time: 1.30pm to 4.30pm

Location: Dundee

Cost: £75 per person (includes slide presentation in electronic format)

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Overview

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The Scottish Government published a consultation document in December 2016, seeking views on whether the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) should be extended to RSLs from April 2018.  If responses to the consultation favour extension, then all information held by RSLs could be accessible on request.  Currently, only personal data and environmental information held by RSLs is accessible under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EISRs), respectively.

 

If FOISA is extended, RSLs will need to train staff to recognise FOISA requests, provide advice and assistance to applicants and direct requests to the appropriate person internally.  Request handling procedures, together with a review process, will need to be implemented.  Records will require to be held in a manner that facilitates retrieval and access and allows an RSL to respond within time limits.  Publication schemes will need to be devised to outline what information is held by an RSL and how it can be accessed by the public.

 

Daradjeet Jagpal of Information Law Solutions, an independent legal consultancy specialising in delivering advisory, audit and training services to RSLs in Data Protection, Access to Information and Direct Marketing laws, will take participants through the provisions of the EISRs and FOISA and provide practical advice and guidance on:

 

• types of information covered;

• differences between the EISRs and FOISA;

• publication schemes and the duty to actively disseminate environmental information;

• recognising and handling requests for information and environmental information;

• providing advice and assistance to applicants;

• dealing with repeat, vexatious and unreasonable requests;

• timescales for response and extension;

• charging for requests for information and environmental information and developing a charging scheme;

• applying exemptions from disclosure of information and exceptions from disclosure of environmental information of relevance to RSLs, including the public interest;

• undertaking reviews of initial responses to requests;

• interface between the EISRs, FOISA and the DPA;

• commercial contracts and the EISRs and FOISA;

• public procurement and the EISRs and FOISA;

• Scottish Information Commissioner and enforcement;

• offences; and

• risk management.

 

No previous EISRs or FOISA knowledge is assumed and the event is suitable for anyone interested or involved in access to information within RSLs, regardless of their role, level of skill or experience.  In-house legal advisers, Data Protection professionals and staff with office management, administration, information governance, compliance and risk management roles will find the event particularly valuable.

 

The cost of the event includes an electronic copy of the slide presentation by follow-up e-mail after the event.

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Participants will be issued with an electronic certificate confirming attendance at the event for their training records (3 hours’ verifiable CPD).

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